


Avatar Kallo

by ArgoLane



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: A lot of of bending, A sex scene or two, Avatar Cycle, Avatar State, Bending (Avatar), Bisexual Lead, Bisexual Male Character, But it's not a slash fic, Casual Sex, Gen, Genderfluid Character, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, Language, M/M, Not A Fix-It, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Original Fiction, Post-Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Post-Canon, Poverty, The Avatar After Korra, Work In Progress, should I keep going?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 21:31:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17475335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgoLane/pseuds/ArgoLane
Summary: 18 years after the death of Avatar Korra, the White Lotus are desperately searching for the new Avatar. In an attempt to find them, they arrive in Ba Sing Se where they find Kallo, a struggling teenager in the poverty-ridden lower ring of the city who also just so happens to be the world's next Avatar. As Kallo learns to take on the responsibilities of the Avatar, international tensions rise as the United Republic pushes its modern agenda to modernize the world, threatening the traditional ways of the Earth Kingdom monarchy. Soon, Kallo will have to choose whether he will defend freedom or his home.





	1. The Earth King

**Author's Note:**

> A work in progress! If you have thoughts please, please, please, drop them in the comments section! I'm debating on whether or not I want to continue this so any suggestions would be much appreciated!

** CHAPTER 1: The Earth King **

 

It was warm and quiet the night the Earth King was shaken awake by his royal guard.

 

“Your majesty…my King.”

 

It took a couple of shakes before the old man finally came to.

 

“Mosiah..?” he whispered, “It’s the middle of the night...”

 

“Apologies, my king. I’m afraid, your majesty, that you have visitors.”

 

“Visitors?” he muttered incredulously. “Who’s visiting the palace at this time of night?”

 

“The White Lotus, your majesty. They have requested an urgent meeting.”

 

***

 

Led by his guard, the Earth King shuffled toward his throne overlooking the expansive chamber, eyes glued to the handful of White Lotus members standing stoically just a few feet away.

 

Plopping down in his throne, the king gestured towards the three men who were shrouded in white and navy blue robes. “Speak.”

 

The older of the three stepped forward and kneeled. “Your majesty, allow me and my men to apologize for the late hour.”

 

 “By all means, please continue to dispense with niceties while I lose more sleep than I already have,” sighed the king.

 

The man seemed unnerved by this. “My name is Han. I serve as the leader of the White Lotus. It is with great pleasure and honor that I inform you that the Avatar is here in your great city.”

 

The Earth King leaned forward. “The Avatar? Here? In Ba Sing Se?”

 

Han nodded.

 

“How can you be sure?”

 

“The White Lotus has searched the Earth Kingdom colonies, Omashu, Zaofu, Gaoling, and even Republic City; none of which the next Avatar has managed to turn up. Being that the next Avatar is an Earthbender, Ba Sing Se is the only possible location left.”

 

“Mosiah!”

 

The Earth King gestured towards his guard to come forward. Mosiah crouched down as the king whispered in his ear, “Wake my son.”

 

With a nod, the guard hurried off. The King turned his attention back to Han, peering at him as he stifled his excitement.

 

“So, if the next Avatar is truly in Ba Sing Se, how do we go about finding them?”

 

Han gestured behind him. “Ronan?”

 

One of the White Lotus members stepped forward carrying a tray of items and it laid it in front of the Earth King.

 

Han continued, “Before you are a collection of relics, amulets, and tokens, only four of which belonged to Avatar Korra.”

 

“I see,” the King chimed, “you determine who the next Avatar is by having them choose Avatar Korra’s past possessions.”

 

Han nodded. “It used to be that the four items would belong to four different Avatars. However, since the events of Harmonic Convergence, the Avatar Spirit no longer carries the past lives of previous Avatars, only the most recent one.”

 

A small voice echoed in the hall, “Father?”

 

The King stood up proudly. “Jami! Come, my son, come.”

 

The small boy nervously stepped forward. “Who are these people?”

 

“These are members from the White Lotus. They’ve just informed me that the next Avatar is in Ba Sing Se!”

 

The boys eyes lit up. “The Avatar?”

 

“Yes, and they have agreed to let you take the test to see if you are the one!” The King smiled at his son and then glared expectantly at Han. “My son is a professional Probender, an exceptional athlete, and a natural born leader! Surely, he must be next in line.”

 

Han sighed and nodded towards the other member to his left, who, with a firm stomp to the ground, earthbended a clay table, elevating the tray so that it was up to Jami’s waist.

 

Jami looked back at his father who nodded encouragingly. Approaching the table, his hand wavered over the collection of objects laid out before him: a hairbrush, a handful of pai sho tiles, pieces of fabric, something that looked like a leash of some sort, a ceramic mug, amongst other seemingly random items.

After what seemed like hours, Jami had picked out a dried rose, a gold necklace, a Probending glove, and a watch.

 

Ronan looked solemnly at the king and shook his head.

 

The Earth King sighed, “Very well. Back to bed now, Jami.”

 

The boy, crestfallen, was escorted by a guard from the chamber.

 

Han stepped forward. “Your majesty, you must understand. It’s been 18 years since the death of Avatar Korra and the new Avatar was meant to resurface 2 years ago. We must find them as soon as possible and we need only your influence and cooperation.”

 

The King stepped down from his throne and peered at the items. “I will agree to helping you find the Avatar. I shall send out word…and we will offer this Test to anyone who comes to the palace.”

 

He bends the earth away and the tray of items falls to the ground with a clatter.

 

“Tomorrow…the world will have its next Avatar.”

 

 


	2. Kallo

** CHAPTER 2: Kallo **

 

♫   I n   m y   h o m e   o f   o o l o n g    t e a   ♫

♫   A   t r e e   u n d e r   w h i c h   I    l a  y   ♫

♫ T h e r e ’ s   n o w h e r e   I ‘ d  r a t h e r   b e   ♫

♫  B u t   m y   l o v i n g   B a   S i n g   S e  ♫

 

The low hum of the radio coming from his mother’s room was often the first thing Kallo would hear in the morning...that, and the thunderous rumble of the Ba Sing Se railway.

 

Kallo stumbled into the kitchen. His mother was already settled in with her eyes glued to the small television set on the kitchen counter. Kallo rubbed his eyes and made a beeline towards the coffee machine.

 

“Morning,” he yawned.

 

Kalma glanced over at him and then back to the television. “Morning. Have you seen this?” She points to the small screen. Kallo leans over as he pours coffee into a mug, reading the headline: “NEXT AVATAR RUMORED TO BE IN BA SING SE”.

 

Kallo’s eyebrows raised. “Damn, the Avatar? Weren’t they supposed to find them already?”

 

She shrugged her shoulders and chuckled, “Apparently the whole city is in a frenzy with everyone and their mothers thinking that their husband or nephew or son or distant cousin twice removed is the Avatar.”

 

They laughed together and Kallo pointed to the ceiling. “Can you imagine Mr. Zolo upstairs being the Avatar? He’d probably be more obsessed with rent control than balancing the universe.”

 

His mother laughed before she read the clock.

 

“Ugh,” she muttered, “I’m going to be late.” She threw her empty mug into the sink and grabbed a stitched bag before placing a kiss on Kallo’s forehead.

 

“I’ll probably be home late again. Don’t wait up for me, okay?”

 

“Okay.” He nodded and raised the mug in salute. “Give those tourists hell.”

 

She rolled her eyes fleetingly, smiled, and shut the door behind her.

 

Kallo absentmindedly did his daily morning tidy-up of the small two bedroom apartment, taking a sip of his coffee every now and again. The place was almost always in disarray since his mother spent most of her days selling tickets for the Ba Sing Se tram to Fire Nation tourists just to be able to scrape by and pay their rent to Mr. Zolo. Kallo, on the other hand, spent the majority of his time working at a butcher shop ever since they ran out of money to keep him enrolled in any type of school.

 

Living in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se certainly imbued someone with a sense of sociability and familial sentiment toward their neighbors, at the very least. It wasn’t all that bad…apart from the ever-increasing poverty, huge crime rates, and lack of proper health care.

 

Struggling and living paycheck to paycheck was Kallo and Kalma’s M.O., and it was one M.O. they were increasingly getting good at.

 

With one final nudge and dusting of the couch, Kallo head out the door and was immediately bombarded with the sounds of the lower ring.

 

The slight hint of coffee lingered in the air from the stands and, like always, dirt was constantly being stirred up by the cars and people quickly shuffling off to work, creating a haze.

 

Yet despite the boisterous hustle and bustle of the lower ring, Kallo barely registered it anymore on his walk to work. When you wake up and go to sleep to the sounds of the city, it becomes background noise; a soundtrack that’s barely noticed by the listener.

 

But today there was a different energy to it; at least, it was different enough that it caught Kallo’s attention. He assumed that people had gotten wind of the news that the Avatar was somewhere in Ba Sing Se.

 

In all honesty, Kallo had not always been the biggest fan of the previous Avatar. Sure, he had certainly heard stories and learned in school of all the good Avatar Korra did, but to Kallo, it was hard to reconcile the ramifications her Avatar reign had on the world, especially his world. Ever since the Red Lotus assassinated the Earth Queen and “liberated” the lower class of Ba Sing Se, the social classes had grown more and more distant from each other and hardly anyone could escape from one to the other even if they wanted to. The distance between the classes practically made the lower class invisible, and financial aid was conveniently left out of the plan to rebuild the government when Kuvira took over.

 

So yeah, he wasn’t the biggest fan of Korra.

 

He had to admit though, he was definitely anxious to find out who this next Avatar was going to be. Maybe if they came from Ba Sing Se, they could help the lower ring down the line. Maybe.

 

A couple of blocks later, Kallo arrived at “Baro’s Beef”. He gave a slight kick to the door and the bell rung shrilly. The smell of raw meat, unlike the sounds of the city, was something Kallo never really got used to. He wrinkled his nose in displeasure. As Kallo went to go and trade his coat for an apron, he saw a pile of sheets in the corner where the aprons hung. When Kallo stepped closer, he realized those sheets were serving as a blanket for his best friend, Zahn, who was passed out on the white tile floor, drooling.

 

“Been like that since last night.”

 

Kallo turned slightly as Baro trudged over from his manager’s office.

 

“Know why?”

 

Baro shrugged. “My guess is they got evicted. Lots of people ‘round here can’t pay rent anymore. Sign of the times,” he murmured dejectedly as he disappeared into his office again.

 

Kallo sighed, kneeling down to softly nudge Zahn’s shoulder. “Z…Zahn, wake up.”

 

The dark haired teenager stirred in their sleep before one eye peered open, then two. Zahn looked up questioningly at their friend. “Kal? Wh…what are you doing in my house?”

 

Kallo chuckled and gestured around them. “This smell like your house?”

 

Zahn shrugged in response. “You got me there.”

 

They groaned and shoved away their blanket of dirty sheets to sit up against the wall. Kallo slid down onto the floor next to them, resting his arms on his knees. “Wanna tell me why you’re sleeping here?”

 

Again, Zahn responded with a shrug, “Long story short, the police found out that I had no legal guardians and kicked me out of the house.”

 

“You were paying rent just fine, weren’t you?”

 

“Yeah but since I’m only seventeen, I’m technically not able to rent a place by myself.” Zahn rolled their eyes as they put the last couple of words in air quotes.

 

Kallo leaned forward so Baro wouldn’t hear. “Did you tell them you had no parents?”

 

They shook their head. “If I did that, they’d ship me off to foster parents or something equally as painful. No, they think I’m just a runaway.”

 

“Could’ve stayed at my place,” Kallo sighed, nudging Zahn’s knee.

 

They let out a laugh. “Your house is tiny as hell. Where would I sleep, on the kitchen counter?”

 

“What, you don’t like being little spoon?” Kallo shot back.

 

Zahn playfully hit him as they chuckled together.

 

“Hey!” Baro’s voice boomed from the office. “Doesn’t seem like you two are doing a bunch of working over there!”

 

“What, and you are?” Zahn yelled back. Kallo’s eyes widened in a mixture of fear and amusement. They both chuckled to themselves as Baro murmured something along the lines of “kiss my ass”.

 

Kallo nudged Zahn’s knee again. “But seriously, you can crash at my place if you need to. I’m sure Mom won’t mind. I’ve got you, Z.”

 

Zahn smiled but there was something about it that Kallo didn’t quite believe. Maybe there was a tinge of sadness to it.

 

“I appreciate it, Kal, but I don’t want to be a burden,” they said.

 

“Z, come on, you’re not a burden,” Kallo protested.

 

“No, seriously, I’ll be fine. Okay?” Zahn was very obviously avoiding eye contact. “I’ll be eighteen in a couple of weeks and when that happens, I can get something somewhere. It’ll be fine.”

 

“But that’s still a few weeks! Are you just gonna sleep here until then?”

 

A third shrug rolled off Zahn’s shoulders. “I’ll figure something out.”

 

Kallo let out a sigh, knowing that once Zahn made up their mind, there was no changing it.

 

He leaned forward a little to try and meet eyes with his friend. “If you need anything, you know you can come to me. Door’s always open, okay?”

 

Finally, Zahn met Kallo’s gaze and nodded. “Thanks, Kal….”

 

“You’re welcome. Now, let’s start prep before we both get fired and you lose a place to sleep.”

 ***

 The two were about three hours into their shift, and suddenly, Zahn sounded like they had lost it.

 

“Woah, what the FUCK!”

 

“Language!” boomed Baro’s voice from his office.

 

Kallo stood there at the register, hand hovering over the counter and holding change he was just about ready to give back to a now very confused customer.

 

He laughed nervously as his eyes darted between the door and the woman. “Um…would-would you just give me one second, ma’am?” She gave him a curt nod and Kallo speed-walked over to the prep room, fully expecting to see a cut off finger on the floor or something equally as disturbing.

 

Instead, he found Zahn with their eyes glued to the small television they kept on the counter, mouth practically on the floor.

 

Kallo looked around anxiously. “What? What, what happened?”

 

Zahn turned their over-enthused face toward Kallo and pointed to the screen. “The. AVATAR.”

 

Kallo sighed and took a few calming breaths. “Yeah, there’s rumors going around that the next one is in Ba Sing Se.”

 

“Rumors? RUMORS?” Zahn gestured wildly with their hands and once again pointed to the television. “Does that look like a RUMOR to you?!”

 

“What?” Kallo looked closer at what looked like news footage of the Palace Square in the Upper Ring, “What am I…wait…holy shit…are those…?”

 

Zahn nodded vigorously. “White. Lotus. Members. In the city. IN THE UPPER RING. Kal, they’re doing tests to find the next Avatar. RIGHT. NOW.”

 

Kallo’s eyes widened more than they already were. “Holy shit. We HAVE to go and see this.”

 

“Our lunch break is in an hour and Baro takes a nap for another two. It’s the perfect amount of time to get on the tram and come back before he notices. Someone will pass the test sooner rather than later at this rate.” Zahn was practically shaking with excitement.

 

Kallo nodded. “I can get tickets from my mom. Damn, this could work. What if Baro wakes up?”

 

Zahn shook their head. “He won’t, he’s literally slept through three earthquakes. It’s in his genes to sleep like a rock.”

 

After a painstakingly long hour crawled by, Kallo and Zahn quickly acquired two tickets to the Upper Ring from Kallo’s mother in a _very legal way_ , and arrived in the Upper Ring after a 20 minute ride in the lower class carts.

 

Zahn took a strong sniff and sighed. “Smell that?”

 

Kallo sniffed and shook his head. “Smell what?”

 

“Exactly,” Zahn said. “No raw meat, no stale coffee, no garbage that’s been left out in the sun. Just fresh air. Isn’t it great?”

Kallo had to admit, the air definitely felt a lot fresher. Everything looked pristine and well kept; not a scrap of trash was in sight. Much like the lower ring, there were no shortages of shops and stores, but they all had shiny signs and no rotten fruit out front. Everyone seemed to wear roughly the same ensemble with some slight variation, maybe a gold broach or a green scarf, but for the most part there was an astonishingly large amount of white.

 

As they made their way to the Palace Square, Kallo couldn’t help but notice some of the looks they were receiving. It was if someone had stuck something unpleasant underneath these people’s noses and, to top it all off, the opulence of it all only seemed to become more apparent. There were people eating things that didn’t even look like food, and some of them were speaking into a mobile, something only very, VERY few people could afford to have in the lower ring.

 

All of this money and wealth was being wasted while people in the lower ring were starving, struggling to keep their home. And, to put it mildly, it pissed Kallo off to no end.

 

They finally reached the Palace Square and to no surprise, a huge line had congregated outside.

 

Kallo groaned. “Damn it. Are these the people taking the Test or are they just watching like us?”

 

“Probably both,” Zahn said, peering over the heads of the people in front of them. “Either way, we don’t have time to wait in line. Baro will wake up long before we get into the Square. Plus we don’t have any money.”

 

Several of the people in line were handing money to attendants in exchange for tickets; there was always an attempt to capitalize on a good show.

 

Kallo looked up, examining the balustrades and turrets that lined the Palace Square before an idea popped into his head.

 

 He tapped Zahn’s arm and smiled. “I have a plan.”

 *** 

“Are you sure about this?”

 

Kallo looked at Zahn with amusement. “You wanna see who the next Avatar is or not?”

 

Zahn rolled their eyes. “Yes…”

 

“And do you trust me?”

 

“Not even a little.”

 

Kallo spread his legs into a firm stance and slammed his hand into the ground with a grunt, creating a platform of earth, which sent Zahn stumbling to the ground from the sudden shift underneath them.

 

“God, I hate benders,” they mumbled.

 

Kallo snorted, and with a strong stomp and a forward thrust of his arms, he sent the platform flying upwards. Zahn let out a muffled scream as they flew through the air.

 

Kallo didn’t realize how rusty he was on his earthbending until now. There was really no reason to use it back home and everyone was practically living on top of each other so it was never really safe to bend in the city to begin with.

 

With some careful aiming, Kallo landed the platform squarely on one of the long balconies that overlooked the square. Zahn looked like they were ready to puke as they stumbled off of the platform and onto solid ground.

 

They pointed to the scene below them. “Well, no wonder there’s a huge line. They’re doing one person at a time.”

 

It was true. By the looks of it, there were three White Lotus members to one small table of objects too small for Kallo to make out at his current position.

 

“Is that how they find the next Avatar? I was expecting something more…all-four-elements- themed,” Zahn said.

 

Kallo shrugged. “I don’t know how they do it now since the Avatar spirit doesn’t carry the past lives of more than one Avatar.”

 

“Oh, yeah!” Zahn waved their finger around aimlessly. “The whole Harmonic Convergence debacle. _That_ was a depressing day in history class.”

 

Zahn turned to Kallo. “You think we can get closer? Might be more interesting if we could hear them or see what’s actually on that table…”

 

Kallo shook his head. “If we get closer, we might get caught. I think this is the best we can do.”

 

Zahn let out a loud groan. “Not even to that lower balcony down there?”

 

“Z, I’m serious. We’ll get caught if we move.”

 

“But it’s just right there! It’s literally ten feet away!” they protested.

 

“Do you want the White Lotus to see us? Do you want to go to prison? Because guess what, Zahn, the beds there aren’t great either!” Kallo shot back.

 

But before Zahn could even have time to retort, someone behind them yelled, “Hey!”

 

The two bickering friends whipped around just in time to see a Dai Li agent send a pair of earth-hands flying towards them.

 

Kallo pushed Zahn down and snapped into a quick stance to block the earth-hands. He turned to Zahn with wide eyes. “RUN!”

 

As Zahn clambered away in the opposite direction, Kallo held his ground against the Dai Li agent.

 

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” he muttered under his breath. He was really rusty. It took a while of dodging onslaught after onslaught of flying earth-hands before Kallo finally found his rhythm. At the first chance he got, Kallo bended the wall next to the Agent and knocked it right into him. Just as he was about to run after Zahn, Kallo saw three more Dai Li agents out of the corner of his eye sprinting across the rooftops towards him. The crowd below must’ve caught wind of what was going on because Kallo could hear shouts and cries from the Square.

 

By the time the Dai Li agents caught up to him, Kallo could practically feel the Chi and the adrenaline flowing through him. It had been years since he’d been in a proper fight, but it didn’t matter--it was like riding a bicycle. Muscle memory took over. His mind was stuffed full of reminders from the lessons his dad taught him:

 

Okay, don’t forget your stance. Left foot in front of the right. Stand straight. Find a balance. Hand out in front your chest. Right hand? No, left foot, left hand.

 

Kallo breathed in and out, entering his stance. A Dai Li agent appeared on his right and immediately sent three pairs of fists flying towards Kallo. With no hesitation, the young earthbender stomped the ground and bended a wall in front of him, catching the fists before hurling the wall at a second agent who appeared on his left.

 

With two quick jabs with his fists, Kallo sent two bricks flying into the Dai Li agent. She crashed into the wall behind her.

 

“Kal!”

 

Kallo whirled around and saw Zahn being hauled away by a Dai Li agent.

 

“Zahn! Hold on, I’m coming!” he shouted back.

 

The sound of someone landing hard a few feet away signaled the arrival of the third agent. Kallo spun on the spot, ducking down and avoiding a hail of flying boulders before bending a small chunk from the ground underneath the agent’s foot. Kallo threw off his balance before delivering the final blow.

 

Kallo spun around, ready to sprint after Zahn, before he felt something close around both of his hands. They were quickly bound together behind his back. The force of it sent him flying into the ground with a grunt, and within seconds, Kallo was surrounded.

 

“Shit.”

 ***

“Chief Kuan, we found these two sneaking around the balcony.”

 

Kallo and Zahn were pushed to their knees. They were now dead center in the middle of the Palace Square, kneeling in the shadow of a man with the same Dai Li uniform as all the others, but with dissimilar color patterns to distinguish him.

 

The Test seemed to have stopped dead in its tracks and the crowd was moving around to get a look at what was happening.

 

The Chief Dai Li raised a fist and then opened it, releasing the earth fists that held Kallo and Zahn’s hands together.

 

“What are you two doing here?”

 

Zahn looked over at Kallo nervously before speaking up.

 

“We’re from the lo-middle, middle ring and we wanted to see what all the-the fuss was about.” Zahn couldn’t seem to stop laughing nervously in between their words.

 

The Chief raised an eyebrow. “Middle ring, huh?”

 

Kallo sighed in exasperation. “Where we’re from doesn’t matter. We didn’t have any money to get in and we’re…huge fans of the Avatar.”

 

“Oh, really?” The Chief leaned down close to Kallo’s face, his scowl betraying an obvious condescension. “Then why did you feel the need to fight against my agents, I wonder? Any real fan would know that the Dai Li have held unwavering loyalty towards the Avatar and their position.”

 

“To Avatar Kyoshi, maybe.” Kallo inched even closer. “But we both know that the Dai Li has had their troubles in the past with the Avatar. Coups and imprisoning Airbenders and what not.”

 

“They were following orders.”

 

Kallo scoffed, “And I suppose the Fire Nation warriors were just “following orders” when they killed off nearly the entire Air Nation.”

 

The scowl plastered on the Chief’s grew even deeper. He stood back up and dusted his shirt absentmindedly. “Guard, get these _lower_ ring scum out of my sight.”

 

“Just a moment, Kuan,” said a voice.

 

A White Lotus member appeared from behind Kallo.

 

“What, Han?” the Chief spat. Han in reply raised a hand to silence him and stepped forward until he was in front of Kallo.

 

“What’s your name, young man?”

 

Kallo raised an eyebrow and looked over at Zahn, who nodded at the man in front of them.

 

He looked back at the man in the long white robes. “Kallo…”

 

Han smiled, “Well, Kallo. You certainly have a rebellious streak in you, don’t you?”

 

Kallo was at a loss for words, not really sure where Han was going with this.

 

He waved in the general direction of the balconies over them. “And I watched you take down those Dai Li agents. Incredible form. Who trained you?”

 

“My father, sir.” Kallo cleared his throat. “Before he died.”

 

Han bowed. “My condolences.”

 

Han and Kallo stared at each other for a long while, but Kallo quickly grew uncomfortable under Han’s piercing gaze. Kallo was just about to say something to cut through the awkward silence when Han finally spoke.

 

“Get up,” he said.

 

The Chief spoke up behind him, “Sir?” to which Han ignored him. He motioned for Kallo to stand up. Kallo again looked at Zahn questioningly before getting to his feet. Han turned and began to walk towards the table of various objects and artifacts, motioning for Kallo to follow him.

 

 “You can’t be serious!” the Chief laughed derisively.

 

Han, stone faced, turned toward the Chief. “You are no longer needed, Chief Kuan. I’ll take it from here.”

 

With a mixture of frustration and humiliation, Chief Kuan bowed and nodded for his Dai Li agents to return to their posts. Some of them followed, occasionally looking over their shoulders with curiosity.

 

Kallo could feel beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he slowly walked up to the table.

When he finally arrived, Han outstretched a hand and waved it over the items on the table. “Please, close your eyes and pick only four of these objects. Let the energy of the items guide you.”

 

Kallo couldn’t help but laugh, shaking his head. “No, you can’t be serious. You don’t really think that I-”

 

“I don’t claim to think, anything, young man,” Han said sternly, to which Kallo’s smile of derision immediately disappeared.

 

Han gestured at the items again. “Please, close your eyes and pick only four of these objects. Let the energy of the items guide you.”

 

With a deep breath and quick shake of his head, still not believing he was actually doing this, Kallo closed his eyes and hovered his hand over the table. Getting his mind to quiet down and to drown out the low murmurings and comments coming from the crowd around him proved to be very difficult.

 

Hours seemed to pass before Kallo just gave in to the inevitable humiliation and made a grab for the item that was closest to him.

 

It wasn’t until his hand made contact with something smooth and dented did it feel like a thousand bolts of electricity went surging through his body. Kallo opened his eyes but all he saw blinding white light. Someone’s voice seemed to be whispering in his ear but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Everything was too much. The sensory overload was overwhelming. 

 

Next thing he knew, Kallo was on the ground looking up at the sky. Despite the mild weather, he was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, his heart beating rapidly.

 

He quickly stood up and went into a stance, expecting a fight at any moment. But the only thing that greeted him was complete silence. Everyone around him seemed to have the same star-struck expression on their face, except for Han, who was wearing a mild smile.

 

Kallo raised both fists in the man’s direction, “What did you do to me?” His voice came out ragged and uneven. Han continued to smile.

 

Kallo got closer. “What did you do to me?!” he yelled.

 

“Kal…”

 

Zahn’s voice sounded uncharacteristically timid. They were still situated on their knees on the ground. When Kallo looked at them, all Zahn gave him was a slow shake of their head, their eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

 

At the moment, the crowd seemed to come out of its stupor and everyone around him began to get on their knees and bow. The dawdling Dai Li agents reluctantly followed suit.

 

Kallo’s eyebrows furrowed together and he turned to Han and the two White Lotus members, who had also gotten onto their knees.

 

Han solemnly looked up. “It is our pleasure to serve you, Avatar Kallo.”

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you like this chapter, leave a kudos and a comment! Still debating on whether or not I want to keep this story going!
> 
> Much love,
> 
> Argo Lane


End file.
